Ben Charny

Yahoo Inc. has upgraded its online mapping and driving directions service by borrowing two key features made popular by rival Google Inc. The most noticeable improvements are how the site displays new maps without having to download another Web page, and the maps themselves now list local retailers, plus contact information and customer reviews. Both […]

Internet users on Thursday had an initial, and largely positive, experience with what search giant Google Inc. meant two years ago when it said it was going to make books freely available to read online. As previously reported, people were drawn to Googles Google Print Web site because of news that millions of classic books […]

SAN FRANCISCO – For two hours here this week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie explained how a concept known as “live software” now guides Microsofts future. The two never mentioned Internet search provider Google Inc. Yet Google played a huge role in shaping Microsofts just-announced technology “sea change,” Internet industry […]

A test version of a new Firefox browser is now available. New features include improved pop-up advertisement blocking and faster back and forward Web navigation features, and added support for Mac OS X. On its Web site, Firefox browser makers warn the browser is only a test version and is prone to a long list […]

SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a renewed focus on services delivered over the Internet, as it tries to fend off challenges from Google and other competitors. The company showed a pair of “Live” portals offering application services aimed at small businesses and consumers. To a large degree, the new initiatives from Microsoft Corp. made public […]

A U.S. patent office decision against Microsoft in September actually softens the sting of a legal setback the software giant experienced Monday, some Microsoft watchers now contend. As previously reported, the nations top court on Monday said it will not hear Microsofts latest appeal of a 2003 Illinois jury decision adverse to Microsoft, and concerning […]

Google Inc.s online book project will take an important step forward next week despite an increasingly nasty legal fight over the companys plans. On Tuesday, the Internet search giant will resume scanning into its database a large number of library books subject to copyright laws. It stopped doing so in August, following threats by publishers […]

Yahoo announced a new feature for its My Web 2.0 “social search engine” on Friday thats meant to appeal to bloggers and Web site publishers. The new trait is further evidence that Internet search engines are embracing blogs, which are online diaries on any number of topics with links directing visitors to the operators favorite […]

A company backed by Microsoft Corp. and some cell phone industry heavyweights is causing a stir with new rules that accompany the Web site addresses its now distributing. The firm, mTLD Top Level Domain Inc., based in Dublin, Ireland, requires a certain look and feel for Web sites located at addresses that end in “.mobi,” […]

And the Emmy goes to … Google. For the first time, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation plans to make available interviews its conducted, for historys sake, with hundreds of celebrities. The latest addition to Googles database is another sign of how search engines are focusing on the quality of the content they […]